Broadband ISDN (B-ISDN) is rapidly becoming the technology of choice for wide area terrestrial networking. In particular, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networking is most popular. The promises include high bandwidth, high quality of service (QoS), and low latency. Advances in the physical propagation of digital information and the use of cell switching make this possible.
B-ISDN specifies several different service classes, each with its own QoS requirement. Specific levels of throughput, loss, delay, and jitter are to be met for some portion of the network users. This adds complexity in managing the flow of traffic data through an ATM network.
It is important to determine the minimum amount of bandwidth resource needed for a service class to meet its QoS commitment. Traditional techniques use some models of the traffic profile to predict the effective bandwidth. There are a number of disadvantages in the traditional model-based approaches. First, real life traffic usually operates much below the maximum allowable traffic envelope, resulting in under-subscription and poor bandwidth utilization. Second, model-based approaches are not flexible and cannot accommodate changes in the network traffic profile.